Paris, – Women20, an engagement group that works as part of the G20 for the economic development of women, carried out the first face-to-face debate to arrive at the recommendations to be presented to the G20’s leaders. It was the round table on digital inclusion, one of the four focus topics of the group.
The activity took place in Paris within the OECD Forum, with the support of the French Argentine Embassy, and was attended by 35 participants at the table who debated the 4 key points of the digital agenda: digitization as a key element for the integration of women in the work of the future; women’s access, use and appropriation of technologies; the need for sex- disaggregated data; and protection of privacy.
GSMA, the association that leads the digital inclusion issue for the W20, led the working table with Paula Ferrari-responsible for the gender initiative-, and accompanied Susana Balbo, Chair of the group during the Argentine presidency. In addition, the OECD, the Web Foundation and the GSMA spoke about the central themes of the meeting and opened the experts and delegates’ debate.
“As Topic Chairs, we were privileged to help frame the W20’s recommendations, which will provide a roadmap for the G20 to empower women around the world and move towards gender equality,” stated Mats Granryd, General Director of the GSMA. “These recommendations will highlight the role of the mobile industry in bridging the digital gender gap by removing barriers to access and promoting policies on women’s digital inclusion. We believe that this approach will ensure that women and girls play a key role in the future of our digital economies.”
Susana Balbo participated actively in the debate and stressed the importance of committing states to the promotion of women’s inclusion in the digital economy, by means of education on digital tools and developing digital content with a gender perspective. She also spoke about the impact of women’s inclusion in the digital world: “Ensuring that women are digitally included brings about significant benefits not only for them, but also for their communities and economies.”